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Post by ginjaturtles on Feb 8, 2016 10:33:01 GMT -8
Hello, I'm pretty new to setting up these systems, but I have a fair bit of experience when it comes to electrical. I recently purchased an older toyota motorhome and I am looking to upgrade the power solution from generator power to solar. My power needs are fairly small with the exception that we would like to run a food processor some days that peaks at around 1100 watts (running wattage is only around 200). Other than that, we are just running laptop computers, LED lights, a fan-tastic vent, and the furnace fan. I figure our power consumption will be well under 50ah/day. My plan is to use two battery banks. One will be the existing coach battery (88ah deep cycle flooded) and the second will be two new batteries that I plan to locate in the storage compartment (2x 200ah flooded). I plan to use the Renogy 20 amp dual bank PWM controller atttatched to two 100w panels. I will use 10 guage wire everywhere with the exception of the leads going to and from the batteries (where I plan to use #2) and the battery interconnects (where i plan to use 1/0). I also plan to install a Trimetric Battery meter to monitor my charge and discharge cycles. I have drawn up a diagram of the system I plan to use and attached it to this message. Please have a look and tell me if I'm missing anything important. Thanks in advance.
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Post by Admin on Feb 10, 2016 13:01:34 GMT -8
Hello,
The diagram you have attached looks correct. Everything should work fine wired this way.
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Post by ginjaturtles on Feb 10, 2016 19:50:28 GMT -8
That's great to hear. Thank you so much for going over it for me. I will take pictures and post them in the projects section when I'm done.
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Post by spiderbob on Mar 5, 2016 9:25:37 GMT -8
If your still around I'd be interested to know how you have your panels hooked up, either parallel or series. It will make a difference in charging your batteries, given you seem to be charging all three if I read this right.
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Post by ginjaturtles on Mar 5, 2016 9:53:20 GMT -8
I am still around. I am just in the process of hooking things up today. I have the panels wired in parallel (neg to neg and pos to pos). Is that correct? I should point out that the Ah ratings i put on the chart for the Group 31 batteries is incorrect. They are each rated at 130Ah (total 260Ah).
Also, i have another question that just came up. Can I wire the negative leads going from the controller to the battery to ground, or do they need to be attached directly to the battery posts?
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Post by spiderbob on Mar 5, 2016 10:36:31 GMT -8
Yes on the panels wired in parallel and yes the AH ratings are commutative in a parallel battery so two 12v batteries paralleled to keep 12v going would have a added AH rating so each with 130ah rating x 2 batteries would indeed be 260AH - given your set up. I would not have done it any different I assume they are marine/RV 12v batteries. Everything sees ground as ground, but.....technically, you are increasing the cable length by going to common ground to battery ground, given that solar is so sensitive, I would keep your hooks ups (for the panels to controller and from controller to battery all the same but of course as short as you can from controller to battery. But with that said, ground is ground, but again, there will be a loss. Just how much of a loss, if you have a digital meter and hook both ways it will be readable. I even allowed for fuse length in my set ups.
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Post by spiderbob on Mar 5, 2016 10:46:56 GMT -8
I have to ask this, I am assuming your chassis battery is separate from all what I see above, or is it the single battery? And if so, should it not have an isolator wired into the circuit from the controller to the battery? Your controller is going to try and charge all batteries the same as wired, unless the single battery is also a house battery.
I know Renogy said it is all fine, so I'm not going against that, perhaps I'm a bit confused as to your use.
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Post by ginjaturtles on Mar 5, 2016 12:05:13 GMT -8
Thanks for all the confirmation. I am glad to hear this setup is going to work.
Regarding running the charger negatives to ground, I am primarily doing this to reduce clutter on top of the battery. The space around my single house battery is fairly cramped and it's hard to get the wires on and off easily. I plan to hook them to the frame at the same point as the negative battery cable. Would The loss from running ground be the same whether they're right next to each other or on opposite sides of the vehicle? Would it help if I attatched the negative leads to the same bolt as the negative battery cable (on the single house battery not the bank)?
Also, the single battery is a house battery (Deep cycle marine style). My chassis battery is not included in this diagram and is separated by an isolator from this system. The only interface I have with the chassis wiring is the alternator lead going to the Guest charger (on the house side of the isolator).
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Post by spiderbob on Mar 5, 2016 14:17:22 GMT -8
The negative it should not have a large impact, but on the positive side it would. Personally, I think you should be fine, just don't go to small on cable size.
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Post by ginjaturtles on Mar 5, 2016 17:39:31 GMT -8
I am certainly not going small on the cable size. I have 1/0 cable grounding both battery systems to freshly cleaned/sanded spots on the frame and I have separate #10 wires as the grounds from the chargers to the frame.
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Post by spiderbob on Mar 6, 2016 18:19:41 GMT -8
Let us know how it progresses. Perhaps you have it up and running by now I was pretty excited about getting mine up the first time, the second time, and now the third time. I accidentally found out how valuable it was as I forgot to turn on the breaker one night from shore power, the next morning as I was getting ready to leave, I found I never turned the shore power on. It works!
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Post by ginjaturtles on Mar 7, 2016 8:48:32 GMT -8
I just got the batteries and all of the wiring done last night...and it worked! It's charging with solar and I'm able to run the inverter and all my house systems off of both banks (and i can switch between them!). I ran in to one issue last night. I needed to disable the existing charging system on my old Progressive Dynamics 7231 power converter. When I was plugged in to shore power, it was jumping the voltage on whichever bank was switched on causing the Marinco charger not to engage. I found a post online describing how to disable it by pulling one plug out. I pulled it and viola! I’m good to go. Today I’m finishing up the project and starting the comprehensive testing. I have also not hooked up the Trimetric 2030 meter. I am sure I will have many happy hours of meter reading ahead of me. And yes. I am very excited about this thing. I'm actually typing this message to you on a computer powered by the sun. I'll take some pictures when I get it all buttoned up.
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Post by spiderbob on Mar 12, 2016 12:36:38 GMT -8
I look forward to seeing your pictures with the set up. It's truly a good feeling!
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Post by ginjaturtles on Mar 29, 2016 14:57:04 GMT -8
Hey. I am sorry it took a while for me to get back to you. I've been out enjoying this great system! I have used it now for a couple weeks and everything is working great. I use around 20 a/h on an average day and we have little trouble making that back up with the panels. The automatic charging whenever the truck or generator is running is very nice too. One night i ran the inverter with both of our laptops plugged in all night just as a test. The next morning we were pretty low (80% charge) so I ran the generator for an hour before the sun got up. By 5:00 that afternoon we were back to 100%. Thanks for your input. I really appreciate it. I am also going to post this in the Projects section. imgur.com/a/KjKlY
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Post by Gist on Aug 30, 2016 17:08:19 GMT -8
Ok I have a question. I'm going to get a 300 watt kit. I'm not sure what batteries to get for it. I'm getting a 12 v fridge from either dometic or arb. Also I want to run my laptop, charge my phone, LED lights, and when I cook I'm going to have my convection oven (basically toaster oven) and a griddle to boil on, and lastly the fantastic fan. My question is what kind of battery do I need and should I get two?
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